Nutritional Strategy

Pre workout nutrition depends very much on your relationship with your diet and fitness goals. Pre workout nutrition also depends on your individual goal. The pre workout nutrition of someone who wants to lose weight looks different than someone who wants to gain mass. Exercise requires a large volume of blood to be pumped to your working muscles which means that the blood flow to your stomachs is reduced during a workout, especially during intense workouts. However, our stomach demands energy to digest food which drains the power from the rest of your body. A well planned pre workout nutrition should focus on sustaining energy, increasing performance and supporting the body’s ability to build muscle and burn fat.

Basic guide in achieving a proper pre workout nutrition:

• Eat healthy pre-workout snacks to keep you energized. Don’t overeat or eat complex foods before a workout because you’ll feel heavy.
• Get enough sleep and rest in the night before a workout because it’ll help your body recover quickly or else your mind will give up before your body.
• Take naps if you need it. A 15-minute nap should do the trick to feel rejuvenated. Don’t nap more than 30 minutes because it could make you more tired than before.
• Do a stretching to warm up and activate your blood flow into muscles. Don’t do static stretches as they can decrease your strength and may lead to injuries.
• Take supplements you usually take to reach your goals. But don’t take a supplement that you’ve never tried or never heard it before as it might affect your overall health.
• Keep hydrated by drinking always water to replenish the fluids you may have lost during a workout. Alcohol intake such as beers leads to dehydration which can affect your motor skills and movements.

For most people, the best pre workout nutrition for beginners before starting a workout is arguably coffee. Coffee gives you a significant boost of energy and the best time to drink a morning cup of coffee is ideally, one hour before your workout. This is because while it typically takes 15 to 45 minutes to be absorbed in the body, you will feel the benefits at its peak around 30 to 75 minutes after assumption. Keep in mind that the key to drinking coffee is to have it in moderation. You may experience some side effects if you consume too much, such as an erratic heart rate. It may also destroy your sleep, which can have a negative impact on your body.

What you eat before a workout greatly affects your overall performance. While not eating enough before a workout can make you weak. If you feel like you are working hard, but not making the gains you want, or find that you feel sluggish during your workout, and the quality of your workouts decrease during the week, you may be under fueling your workouts and or not putting the right pre workout nutrition in your body.